Dramatic redrawing of global balance of power will be seen with a mix of curiosity and alarm

It is an image that, had it been published just a few years ago, would have been dismissed as a piece of mischievous Photoshopping: the leaders of Russia and China, accompanied by the head of a pariah regime whose mission to arm his country with nuclear weapons had been opposed at the United Nations by his two companions.

- Justin McCurry

But dramatic shifts in the geopolitical landscape – Russia's invasion of Ukraine and, crucially, the re-election of Donald Trump – have combined to bring Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, together in what many observers are calling a dramatic redrawing of the global balance of power.

Yesterday morning, the three men led a group of more than 20 world leaders as they strode towards a rostrum in Tiananmen Square in Beijing to watch a "victory day" parade marking the end, eight decades ago, of a global conflict that would usher in the first cold war.

Now yesterday's celebrations have ended, however, the regimes in Beijing, Moscow and Pyongyang must confront significant domestic challenges that may yet shift their focus from global power politics.